If Boston intends to be a luxury tax team, in any single trade it can only take on 125 percent of their outgoing salary, plus $100,000. That means adding $20 million in salary requires at least $16 million going back to the original team. The Celtics do not have nearly that much movable money, and the acquired player could make even more than $20 million. Even if they were willing to give up both Brown and Tatum for a star, the Celtics would still need to add significant salary without any filler on their books.

That puts them in this situation where they could possibly need to add money in a deal without sacrificing the talent making them so good this season. Fortunately, they have two different options that could be useful in different timelines.

Chicago adds one wrinkle: Lauri Markkanen, playing the Redick role here, sets his own off-ball screen for Holiday before popping up to hide behind Lopez.

This is the song to blast when a player on the road team fouls out or gets ejected. It is way, way, way better than Hit the Road Jack. It’s a little slower, and lends itself to a gloating, sing-songy chant. When an entire crowd commits, it is almost hypnotic.

Upshot: There wasn’t much that was remarkable about this bad stretch for the Cavs, which started with a double-overtime loss at Milwaukee in the second half of a back-to-back. It ended after a three-game losing streak, including a loss at Miami that James skipped because of rest. (James created a meaningless media stir by wearing a Miami Winners hat in his postgame interview the previous night.)

Cleveland bounced right back to its winning ways after the Miami game, but that was not the end of the intrigue for this season: On Jan. 22, after a win over the Clippers brought the Cavs to 30-11, coach David Blatt was fired. Still, the Cavs rallied to win the franchise’s first championship.

The 3-Point Shootout doesn’t get the same attention as the Dunk Contest, but it is riveting in its own right. The Shootout pits eight players against each other with each one shooting five racks of balls set up along the 3-point line with the goal of knocking down as many 3s as possible. Each rack also includes a money ball that is worth an extra point. The players also get one rack full of money balls that can be set up at the spot of their choosing.

Just before we chatted about All-Star events, McCollum had seen the story that has been going around on Twitter and other outlets, in which Fox News host Laura Ingraham said that players like LeBron James and Kevin Durant should clam up this weekend and stay out of politics �� shut up and dribble, she advised them. Ingraham’s criticism came in response to James and Durant speaking out against President Donald Trump in a video for Uninterrupted.

McCollum shook his head at Ingraham’s comments.

Team Stephen’s starting lineup will also feature first-time All-Star Joel Embiid. With Embiid on Team Stephen and Russell Westbrook on Team LeBron, we have been gifted a third round of Embiid vs. Westbrook. This will be fun.

Overall, Ball’s passing will become an even greater weapon for the Lakers as he improves as a scorer. He doesn’t have to be a dominant scorer to reach his full potential as an offensive player in the NBA. He just needs to be a good enough scorer for teams to respect him when he is open. Otherwise, teams will be able to contain him by taking away passing angles and forcing him to become a scorer whenever he makes a move toward the basket.

Spurs (35-21) at Warriors (42-13) 7:30 p.m. ET �� The Warriors have more talent and depth than the Spurs, but San Antonio always finds a way to compete, especially in nationally televised games. Dejounte Murray and Kyle Anderson have emerged as legitimate role players with injuries early in the season to Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard. Their development will only make the Spurs more difficult to beat when they’re at full strength.

In some weird, roundabout way, this tribute could have made sense. Howard followed the LeBron Standard and decided to play for his hometown NBA franchise before he completely left his prime. He averaged decent numbers and did a lot of community work in Atlanta. Unlike LeBron, however, he was bounced out of the first round of the playoffs in the lowly East. He was also outmuscled in the paint by the likes of Marcin Gortat and Jason Smith.

Never has an All-Star Game held in Los Angeles �� there were five before this �� been so light on LA presence, especially with a proud franchise like the Lakers here. In every Los Angeles All-Star Game before this one, there have been at least two Lakers, and in the 2011 game, Blake Griffin represented the Clippers. Three times, the MVP of the LA All-Star Game was a Laker (Jerry West in 1972, Shaquille O’Neal in 2004 and Kobe Bryant in 2011).

Beyond their remarkable success despite losing Gordon Hayward on Opening Night, the Celtics are in a truly unusual situation. They still have a very strong collection of assets, both in the form of young players and future draft picks, some of which are significant contributors to this successful season. While Boston has limited salary cap flexibility moving forward �� and thus will not be major players for free agents other than by minimums and Mid-Level exceptions �� general manager Danny Ainge deserves credit for retaining the ability to acquire star talent via trade even after bringing in Kyrie Irving and Hayward this summer.

Ainge zealously kept Boston’s books clear of unnecessary contracts for years with the aim of bringing in an All-Star talent without having to pay a ransom to unload bad money. That worked out incredibly well over the summer when the front office only needed to clear a small amount of money to fit in a full max salary for Hayward.

It has been a strange and vaguely disappointing season for D’Angelo Russell. He has been injured for about half of it, and spent the other half shooting and missing a lot. Russell perked up Tuesday in Cleveland, but he has hit just 38 percent — and 27 percent from deep — since returning from knee surgery.

Russell has used 32.4 percent of Brooklyn’s possessions with a shot, turnover or drawn foul, fourth-highest among all rotation players, behind only James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Joel Embiid. That is a little much. His turnover rate is icky.

Golden State is coming off a championship season, and Steve Kerr’s squad didn’t meet much resistance throughout the 2017 playoffs. The Warriors currently have the best net rating (plus-9.6) and offensive rating (113.4) in the NBA, plus a top-10 defensive rating (103.8). They lead the league in assist percentage (70.2) and true shooting percentage (61.1) by sizable margins. This is a finely tuned machine and clearly the team to beat. How much better would James really make them?

The difference between then and now is that the team’s back is against the wall (no pun intended). Earlier in the season, Wall was at most out for a couple contests at a time. The team’s best playmaker would be back to help them compete another day, even if he was not at 100 percent.

Now, things aren’t so easy. When the length of Wall’s injury was first announced, the Wizards were positioned as the fifth seed, and dropping out of the East playoff picture was just a few losses away. Anything less than perfect wouldn’t do, and that’s what the Wizards have tried to become. With this recent stretch, the team has realized if they don’t move the ball around to create good looks, baskets won’t happen without Wall around to force feed them.

There were no hard feelings when Joe Ingles found out friend and teammate Gordon Hayward was signing with Boston. Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports
Fortunately for the Jazz, they landed a rookie who has proven capable of being the focal point for a team contending for a playoff spot. Ingles has been instrumental in Mitchell’s immediate success, a valuable voice in his ear, as well as a playful pest on Twitter and Instagram.

Donovan doesn’t need much help, Ingles says. He’s a pretty switched-on kid. I’m happy to help him whenever I can.

It’s common to see Ingles put his arm around Mitchell on the court, particularly in crunch time, and calmly offer advice and insight. Snyder says Ingles often serves as Mitchell’s eyes on the floor, with the veteran frequently helping the rookie identify and interpret situations in real time.

That has been the story of Russell’s career: some parts of his game rise, and others fall. Maybe someday soon, they will all rise together. He just turned 22. But so far, this season has been unsatisfying.

I get it: The climate atop Julius Randle Hill isn’t for everyone. His bricky outside shooting has somehow regressed — he has hit 19 percent of long 2-pointers — and his rim protection is spotty. The Lakers haven’t been appreciably better with Randle on the floor, though the Randle-Brook Lopez combo has been solid now across two starting lineups.

Players must be NBA draft eligible to qualify for the roster spot, and they will be evaluated, contacted and contracted directly by the NBL, not its individual teams. The mechanism in which they will get to specific clubs is yet to be decided.

Late Friday, James had a brief response to the Fox News host’s comments posting out the hashtag saying, We will not shut up and dribble.

Fox’s Laura Ingraham declared King James should shut up and dribble after the Cavaliers superstar said President Donald Trump doesn’t give a f— about the American people.

The conservative host of The Ingraham Angle also insulted James for trying to leave high school a year early to enter the NBA. LeBron’s’ R-rated take on Trump was barely intelligible, not to mention ungrammatical, said Ingraham, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

The Golden State Warriors took some local students to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in lieu of the defending NBA champions visiting the White House.

That’s when Curry takes control of the huddle.

Everybody raises an arm up and Curry steps in to give a pep talk. He seldom yells and his voice isn’t overpowering. Instead he’s calm and composed, explaining the points of emphasis for that particular contest while his teammates listen. He’s the final voice everyone hears before going out onto the court.

The real goal for Riley and the Heat in the coming week is to find a way to close the gap between themselves and the other top teams in the East. Big raises are due for Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson, so the Heat are careening toward a major luxury tax situation. That will severely limit their flexibility next year. Now is the time to make a run.

With Dion Waiters out for the rest of the season after ankle surgery, the focus has been on acquiring some punch on the bench, and Miami has been chasing Memphis guard Tyreke Evans earnestly — it would have the double benefit of keeping Evans from the Celtics, who most around the league consider the frontrunners to land Evans.

They have no choice. The Giants don’t have much currently under contract, and new general manager Dave Gettleman and coach Pat Shurmur have vowed to fix the offensive line. Some of the major work has to be done in free agency, especially with arguably the Giants’ three best linemen — Justin Pugh, Weston Richburg and D.J. Fluker — on the market. — Jordan Raanan

Through 59 games, 57.4 percent of Anunoby’s shot attempts have been made up of catch-and-shoot 3-pointers. He’s made 34.4 percent of those opportunities, putting him on the same page as the likes of Russell Westbrook, Luc Mbah a Moute and Andrew Wiggins.

It doesn’t make him one of the better 3-point shooters in the NBA — league average on those shots is 37.3 percent — but Anunoby has been good for 0.9 catch-and-shoot 3-pointers per game since becoming a full-time starter. The combination has been just enough for him to not be a liability when sharing the court with Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas.

This isn’t to say Ball will undoubtedly be a 10-time All-Star and Hall of Famer. He still has limitations offensively, and if he wants to reach his ceiling, he must be able to hit that pull-up 3-pointer when defenders duck under screens. That will allow for more creativity with Ball’s elite passing skills. Consistency is key.

However, this does illustrate the problem with the pendulum swinging too far in the bust direction. Rookies aren’t supposed to dominate right out of the gate. Even Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell have experienced rough stretches. But the spotlight in LA is a little brighter, and scrutiny becomes a little more intense when your father is the Kardashian of the NBA.

Those general parameters were in place before this move, but that additional $13 million makes it easier to be patient with Julius Randle. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement did not fix the structural problems with restricted free agency, which the Lakers can use to their benefit. Even if Randle agreed to an offer sheet with another team on the first day of free agency, the clock for Los Angeles’ front office does not start until the end of the July Moratorium on July 6. If you add in the extra two days teams get for match decisions, management has at least a full week to see how everything shakes out before making a decision on Randle.

It would be easy to complicate this pick by going after a running back like Derrius Guice of LSU or Ronald Jones II of USC or even going with a pass rusher. However, taking McGlinchey fills arguably a greater need. He can play right tackle, which could push Germain Ifedi to the inside or even to the bench.

The ideal for Dallas should be moving off the No. 19 pick. That could mean going up for a player like Vea or Ridley or dropping back to get better value. Staying here, the choice was between Phillips and Georgia guard Isaiah Wynn. Phillips fits the one-technique spot the Cowboys badly need along the defensive line.

Miami Heat: With Wayne Ellington and Tyler Johnson both injured in Tuesday’s game against Philadelphia and unavailable for Wednesday’s practice, there is a chance that Dwyane Wade could start for the Heat on Thursday when they face the Lakers in a home game at AmericanAirlines Arena. The 36-year-old Wade is shooting just 40.8 percent in 22.7 MPG in the six games since he was traded to the Heat from Cleveland.